There have always been special queues for first-class check-in and boarding. Those are part of a private transaction between an airline and a customer. But two-tiered security checks are a different story.

So-called “registered traveler” programs, like Verified Identity Pass, which has about 100,000 members, offer private queues in more than a dozen airports. Anyone can pay a $100 annual fee and $28 for a T.S.A. background check. If you’re not a security risk, you get a biometric identifier (an iris image or a fingerprint) that lets you get in a new, faster line.

But something doesn’t add up. Even a suicide bomber can have a fixed address and a clean police record. The actual security procedures at the checkpoint — the rummaging and scanning and X-raying — remain indispensable. This means the background check and the biometric stuff are just mumbo-jumbo to hide the real nature of the transaction, which is a fee for a shorter line.